The FDA guidance suggests that farmers must cover their outdoor pastures with either roofing or netting, or use noise cannons to scare away wild birds. Perhaps it has escaped FDA that noise cannons would also scare the chickens? Or that putting a roof over a multi-acre pasture is not only cost-prohibitive, but would prevent rain and sun from reaching the living things in the pasture? FDA also advocates walls around the pasture, to prevent mice, rats, and cats from entering, and then put a roof over it. That’s right—walls and roofing. In other words, they want the chickens to be kept in a building! This completely contradicts what “free-range” is supposed to be about: they can be cage-free, but not outdoors.

The problem, of course, is that FDA is describing the commonplace practice where farmers house their birds inside, giving them access to tiny porches that only 1% to 3% of the chickens can use at a time—if there are any porches. Although eggs labeled “organic” must allow birds outdoor access, these small porches qualify as outdoor access, according to the USDA. Sadly, this is the industry standard free-range hens; the standards for “cage-free” are even less demanding.

“Free-range” in USDA-speak certainly does not mean “pastured.” There is a world of difference between an indoor hen that eats feed and never sees the sun, and an outdoor hen that finds part of its own dinner by scratching in the dirt for bugs and worms.

Pastured eggs are more nutritious. In addition, the Pew Commission has concluded that industrial-scale animal production poses “unacceptable” risks to public health and the environment, while subjecting billions of animals to “severe distress.” Their report states:

Food safety is linked to the health of the animals that produce the meat, dairy and egg products that we eat. In fact, scientists have found modern intensive confinement production systems can be stressful for food animals, and that stress can increase pathogen shedding in animals.

In addition, researchers reported that workers at Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) are more likely to harbor multi-drug-resistant MRSA in their noses than workers at antibiotic-free, free-range farms.

An example of the public health risk posed by industrial scale farms is the recent outbreak of the rare foodborne illness cyclospora. Since late June, 466 people in fifteen states have taken ill. The FDA announced on August 2 that the illnesses in Iowa and Nebraska were linked to bagged salads from a Mexican subsidiary of Taylor Farms, which were sold to Olive Garden and Red Lobster restaurants. Many experts believe that the infections in the other thirteen states must also come from Taylor Farms, since cyclospora is rare in the US. Most of the 1,100 annual cases of cyclospora in the US afflict US residents returning from overseas.

Not only are industrial scale farms less healthy for workers, consumers, and the local environment, but the mass production of food that is widely distributed makes it very difficult to trace the cause of foodborne illnesses, as food may change hands many times between the farm and the dinner table. In the case of the cyclospora epidemic, investigators still don’t know the cause of the illness in thirteen states, and the investigation may “take months.”

The New Zealand dollar dropped after the world’s largest dairy exporter, New Zealand-based Fonterra, reported on August 3 that it had shipped products contaminated with botulism. The dairy products were exported to Australia, China, Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand, and Saudi Arabia in sport drinks and infant formula. If left untreated, 60% of botulism cases are fatal.

The organic, locally grown model that ANH-USA advocates does not pose these problems.

Despite the evidence that CAFO farms make outbreaks of foodborne illnesses inevitable, there is no move to limit or reform them. Instead, as we recently reported, the USDA is proposing an “overhaul” that would reduce the number of inspectors by 40%, process more chickens in less time, and use more and stronger chemicals to wash filthy chickens who lived in too-crowded conditions with thousands of other birds.

The USDA is now reviewing research that indicates that these new and stronger chemicals are actually masking the presence of salmonella, essentially outwitting the testing process. Although USDA records show that salmonella rates in tested chickens have dropped by half, the number of consumers sickened by salmonella has remained the same. And poultry inspectors have reported suffering from asthma, severe respiratory problems, burns, rashes, irritated eyes, and sinus problems, in reaction to the new chemicals.

The new guidance from FDA about “free-range” chickens and the new regulations proposed by the USDA, however absurd, come as no great surprise. It fits the pattern we told you about last week—that the government is waging war on small farmers, in direct violation of the intent of the Tester-Hagan amendment that Congress passed just three years ago.

Action Alert! The FDA is accepting comments on its proposed guidance on the prevention of salmonella in eggs. Write to the agency today and explain that their proposed food safety measures are making unwarranted assumptions about the way egg-producing chickens should be kept, and for organic farmers to follow these guidelines would mean reversing all the benefits their methods provide. Show them that the threat is not from small organic chicken farms, but from filthy industrial CAFOs. Please write to the FDA today!

53 Responses to “Is the FDA Trying to Destroy the Pastured Egg Industry?”

Well, they can close down all of the free-range egg farms, but the next time there’s a major food-borne illness outbreak, who will they blame?! Really, when are these cads on Capitol Hill going to get a grip and concentrate on the economy instead of matters about which they have no real knowledge or education?

I agree with you, Lee Vincent. The lemmings in DC should stay out of situations that are unknown to them.

I am a health nut who eats a lot of chicken. However, recently I’ve told my wife that I haven’t found a decent rotisseried chicken at Cosco, Walmart or a Kroger store lately. It seems that they buy chickens only that have been grown to maximum weight in the shortest possible time, not those that are healthy. I’ve decided that the 98 percent fat free canned chicken breast processed in the USA from Sam’s Club is probably the healthier and tastier way to go.

Chickens have been domesticated for at least 6000 years that we know of, and humans having been eating eggs since way before that. In all this time, these birds have lived outdoors, and humanity has survived, in fact thrived. It is incredibly ignorant to believe that based upon the opinions of industrialized agriculture who are threatened by the organic food movement, that somehow these thousands of years of historical evidence proving beyond any shadow of a doubt that there is no health threat posed by eating eggs laid by poultry raised outdoors, that we should throw all of that history and science out. Industrialized agriculture clearly has a vested interest in creating not only unnecessary, but unhealthy restrictions on the organic food industry. This is completely unacceptable, and we demand that we continue to have the healthy, organic food choices that humans have enjoyed since the beginning of time.

it appears —that the North american continent—has had war declared on it’s citizens—now they want to go all the way to the hospital to infect babies with a strain of HPV a genetic violation on humanity and the food is being agressively attacked if it can be of any health value—and since eggs is really one of the best super foods and unpasteurized milk and not the nutruceutical ( pharam owned ) designer foods that could never live up to this the egg is now going to be violated—the fact is that as long as people allow the farmers to fend for themselves and the farmers stay disjointed due to self interest or @$$ kissing so that the hopes of another farmer caves in while the bigger corporations in agriculture take them over —this will always continue to be an issue—see freedom of choice only applies to bankers and globalist —the citizens of North America never had a freedom of choice just directed options—option A -FOS-option B fresh FOS–Option C Dirty FOS -and option D Knee deep FOS—so as we can see the options—have never been about freedom—and now the genocide being done—is global starting Here
T

The corporations are stealing our tax monies to finance their bailouts and to use the government to remove their competition. The FDA needs to be replaced by an agency that actually works to benefit main street. The people deserve better than this from a government that functions in a democracy.

Why not allow mainstreet to learn and become proficient in taking their grievances to courts and just make the ‘agencies’ advisory or consulting and way smaller… our ancestors knew their Common Law and how to defend themselves in court.

In fact we could start by learning enough common law to recognize how to use the 5th Amendment’s power delegated to Citizens acting as their own Citizen-Prosecutor with the Grand Jury so that they could issue “presentments’ against corrupt officials and put them on trial… No one puts the corrupt officials on trial…. ttyl

Please start doing what is right for the public and right for the environment. Doing the right thing always works out in the end. Support small, humane farming practices. Your new policies are bad for all involved!

this seems to be a similar strategy to the women’s health care clinic regulations. Make it so expensive to comply that no one can. Make the rules so onerous that no one can comply. So the answer to your question is yes. No non-conformity allowed!

FDA-Please reverse your recent guidance on hens and eggs. As a consumer I deserve the choice of having range free and pure organic eggs. It is my right. It appeArs you are trying to destroy the small farmer/rancher.
Let us choose…we want local, free range and organic.
Thank you

Bodie, 3,000 birds sounds like a lot, but it’s still a relatively small operation compared to the industry players. There is a growing movement to raise high-quality pastured eggs on a large enough scale to supply grocery stores, so that more people have access to this nutritious food. Farms such as Coyote Creek/World’s Best Eggs and Vital Farms are raising hens using true pasture methods. These sort of mid-sized farms have between 3,000 and 10,000 birds. To put that in perspective, most of the industry operations have over 50,000 birds, and many have over 200,000 birds.

Get out of the Corporate pocket!!!! Start standing up for everyday people, and support actual healthy foods!!! Tell your ex Monsanto Head he should be ashamed of himself, knowing GMO foods are danergous, with most countries of the world banning them…Shame on the FDA

The FDA created the problem with salmonella in the eggs to begin with by allowing farmers to both raise chickens in filthy conditions in tiny cages and also the use of antibiotics to prevent the chickens from getting sick. Obviously that leads to antibiotic resistent bacteria! Salmonella in eggs has only become a problem fairly recently. I have eaten soft-boiled eggs most of my life with no ill effects but now they tell you to hard boil them. The way to prevent disease in animals is to have as natural an environment as possible, a natural diet and clean conditions. Maybe they are trying to run the farmers who actually do the right things out of business.

I can’t believe that they would make an issue out of this when they allow cattle to be raised in feed lots packed close together and standing in their own filth. Out in CA when you drive the I-5 you have to plug your nose because the stench is so bad even when the windows are up in the car.

Some of us enjoy wild, free range eggs and poultry foods. You have no right to dictate what we want to eat and Not to eat. You can make your industrial based recommendations but that is the extent of your power ! It is about time you put your attention on the personal choices of the people of this country and NOT the profit wishes of a few industrial farm who have been the only salmonella outbreak parties.

The FDA needs to get out bed with big Corp.,and start doing their job of protecting the American people from products that will have negative effects on their health. Let Farmers raise healthy food products.for the public.

It is not surprising for the bureaucrats to come out with pronouncements that are made without thinking.
They are justifying their existence.
We just don’t let them prevail….here in the Philippines, we are eating eggs…free range when available…cooked and raw.
The bacteria here in this lovely tropical country just get dissolved with our gastric juice. Few survive.
And if they do, the people who are sent to the grave are destined for internment anyway…part of life since nobody lives forever…

You continue to usurp responsibility for our own good health by continuing to dictate to those who pay your salaries what you believe to be in our best interests when in reality you are supporting those huge suppliers of scientifically inferior food products in order to ensure that they continue to support your organization and those of you who work for them. And you do work for them not us as I do not recall that you asked any of us citizens whether or not we wish to receive inferior foodstuffs rather than superior foods that can be produced and marketed locally. What is it with you folks? Have you never learned “critical thinking” or did you pass on that in college and concentrate instead on a bus ad degree? Lighten up for our sakes. We are intelligent enough to decide what is best nutritionally. Look at the national health problem in this country and I am certain that most would say you haven’t done such a good job thus far.
I am tired of asking please do not pass this bad bill or that worse one and now I demand that you let us make those decisions by not passing such obvious crap laden bills supporting big bidness.

Sounds again like USDA & FDA are working for corporations. I surely don’t believe they’re working for our safety. These agencies are a mess and need to be cleaned from the basement to the rafters. The USDA & FDA are expensive and do very little more for the people than a cardboard cop in a grocery store isle.
I hear more and more about food poisoning, falsely labeled food and, don’t get me started with gluten labeling.

Tell all the hypocrites in DC we don’t buy the lies anymore stop messing with out food!! Look how Monsanto is doing to what we eat, they don’t eat the poison we do!! Enough with the lies and Police state!! Leave us alone I don’t need anyone telling me how o and what to do in every e=area of my life! I understand many Sheople in this country but not all of us are and STOP IT ALREADY!!

I really appreciate the article, “Is the FDA trying to destroy the pastured egg industry?.” I have decided that if these rules are implemented that I will quit eating eggs. I refuse to eat an egg from a chicken factory. Where I live, there are many small farmers and they sell their products to the local food co-op (I have been a member for 25 years). I won’t eat food that comes from sources with which I am unacquainted. Slowly, over the past five years, I have been enlarging my garden area so that I can raise my own produce, but am not enthusiastic about raising chickens or other animals. When I read articles of this nature, I am really alarmed because it is so Orwellian.

Thank you for all you do to make the public more aware of what our government via corporate lobbyists is doing to us.

If you truly want to reduce salmonella then get rid of CAFO’s. Over crowding and unsanitary conditions lead to disease for any living organism.
Free range and grazing is not only better for the creature but people as well by reducing green house gasses, pesticides and fertilizers.
I will not buy CAFO eggs and will give up eating them all together if I my choices are taken away.

All but one case of food-borne illness has occurred in Factory Farms. This is a strong message in itself. A 2010 article in the Atlantic Monthly stated this. Speaking for myself and many others, we buy and prefer eggs from chickens that are kept humanely, as well as healthy. Factory-farmed chickens are neither happy or healthy. Please do not make it impossible for organic farms to continue to raise chickens in a free-range and natural environment. I believe that many of your new proposals are both unrealistic and not for the best. For example, canons to scare wild birds away would also terrify the chickens. This is not creating and healthy and happy environment for the chickens. Public health risks are increased on factory farms as opposed to pastured, organic farms. Researchers have reported that workers at Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) are more likely to harbor multi-drug-resistant MRSA in their noses than workers at antibiotic-free, free-range farms. Another example of public health risk is the recent outbreak of the rare foodborne illness Cyclospora. The mass production of food that is widely distributed makes it very difficult to trace the cause of foodborne illnesses, as food may change hands many times between the farm and the dinner table. The organic, locally grown model that ANH-USA advocates does not pose these problems. Thank you for your consideration to my comment.

The government is waging war not just on small farms, but on ALL small businesses. The government loves BIG, WEALTHY corporations, but HATES small businesses.

The government is also waging WAR on animals. Animals must have rights! Sadly, the government doesn’t believe in animal rights. How wonderful if all farm animals could live HAPPY and FREE, grazing on pasture!

The government is also waging WAR on our health. Many people are in a desperate fight to either retain their health or regain their health that has been lost. People must have the HUMAN RIGHT to eat healthy food! The government is OPPOSED to a healthy populace:

I know that there are lots of intelligent and good people in the FDA. However, it is obvious that these are not the people who are making the decisions. It seems that those in power at the FDA have frequently overridden the advice of their scientists.

FDA do your job without stepping on the toes of small citizens. Creating regulations that have only one aim in mind, to help only big business are bad for the US and bad for your PR.

Its funny that we have all this food related disease and allergies from the factory farming but most people are flocking to organic and range free animals . The FDA might have outdated information or are they being the food police for the big eggs to weed out the small eggs .

I am writing because there is much concern these days on the quality of our food and the Agriculture Industry of recent years. While I know the responsibility of preventing disease rests on the shoulders of the appointed, elected or otherwise named officials in our regulatory commissions., I also believe you too would like to know that what food you have available to you is clean and safe to consume for you and your loved one.

I am asking that those individuals responsible for inspection of the farms that are mass production of foul and those farms that are “range free” be compared, honestly and ethically as to results of potential disease based on facts/statistics of known results not on opinions and supposed threats.

When any organization operates on opinion and not to actual facts it becomes it’s own disease and eventual demise witness any organization that operates this way. Please allow the freedom of the individual American citizens the right to choose the quality of their food with honest reports as to what is in our food. And for those that willingly produce clean honest food the right to do so, don’t you believe that is a basic Human Right? I believe you do.

If American elected officals and Responsible parties do not act on facts but instead on False Reports we can know and expect where this Nation will go and that is too big a price to pay for the whole of the Nation, then to appease just one organization or even a big organization.

Any individual wants to live in America because of our inherent rights to be able to observe, decide and act to the best interest of life for ourselves and others.

Many important health benefits would never exist if it were up to the FDA. After one takes anti-biotics, it is important to eat yogurt to repopulate the good bacteria in your gut. Left to their devices, the FDA would have demanded that all bacteria be removed from yogurt. They are clearly run by the same big money interests that push GMO foods. Follow the money. Clearly, cage free, open pasture eggs are cutting into the profits of the big agricultural corporations. But they will say it is for the safety of the consumer. More lies, more control, more money.

The FDA guidance suggests that farmers must cover their outdoor pastures with either roofing or netting, or use noise cannons to scare away wild birds. Perhaps it has escaped FDA that noise cannons would also scare the chickens? Or that putting a roof over a multi-acre pasture is not only cost-prohibitive, but would prevent rain and sun from reaching the living things in the pasture? FDA also advocates walls around the pasture, to prevent mice, rats, and cats from entering, and then put a roof over it. That’s right—walls and roofing. In other words, they want the chickens to be kept in a building! This completely contradicts what “free-range” is supposed to be about: they can be cage-free, but not outdoors.

The problem, of course, is that FDA is describing the commonplace practice where farmers house their birds inside, giving them access to tiny porches that only 1% to 3% of the chickens can use at a time—if there are any porches. Although eggs labeled “organic” must allow birds outdoor access, these small porches qualify as outdoor access, according to the USDA. Sadly, this is the industry standard free-range hens; the standards for “cage-free” are even less demanding.

“Free-range” in USDA-speak certainly does not mean “pastured.” There is a world of difference between an indoor hen that eats feed and never sees the sun, and an outdoor hen that finds part of its own dinner by scratching in the dirt for bugs and worms.

Pastured eggs are more nutritious. In addition, the Pew Commission has concluded that industrial-scale animal production poses “unacceptable” risks to public health and the environment, while subjecting billions of animals to “severe distress.” Their report states:

Food safety is linked to the health of the animals that produce the meat, dairy and egg products that we eat. In fact, scientists have found modern intensive confinement production systems can be stressful for food animals, and that stress can increase pathogen shedding in animals.

In addition, researchers reported that workers at Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) are more likely to harbor multi-drug-resistant MRSA in their noses than workers at antibiotic-free, free-range farms.

An example of the public health risk posed by industrial scale farms is the recent outbreak of the rare foodborne illness cyclospora. Since late June, 466 people in fifteen states have taken ill. The FDA announced on August 2 that the illnesses in Iowa and…

What exactly do you mean when you require a website…As per above. I would like to relay my suggestion but do not know if it will be read as i have no website myself. I am obviously able to receive your emails as you see. I would appreciate an answer. I have been a reader of Natural anything forever and am on the net every day….

Hi Gary–Thank you for your comment! As many of our readers have website of their own, they are given the option to share their website with their comment. However, you may post a comment without entering a web address. Best, ANH-USA

Please don’t stop the people who want to have free range hens from having them. You know they are healthier than hens who exist in a hen house all their lives. Let the farmers do what is right and better for all of us. This country has always had free range chickens on farms and it has never been a problem.

I grew up on a pasture-raised chicken farm. The chickens were free to roam, scratch and forage for their own food. They were never sick, and the eggs were tasty beyond anything in a store today. The FDA is simply succumbing to more pressure from AGRI-BUSINESS. They have NO business trying to stop a natural healthy practice such as pasture-raising of creatures whose natural way of living is out in the open. FOR SHAME!!!!!

I am writing this in response to the FDA Guidance regarding egg laying chickens.
This sounds very much like an attempt to run the small pastured egg farmer right out of business. Since there is no research to substantiate these regulations, the consumer would have to wonder why they would be put in effect.
As a consumer, I want to have a say about what I eat, and I like to eat “real” pastured eggs. This means that farmers that want to accommodate people like me need to stay in business. I repeat, no research has shown these eggs to be the harmful ones. Take a closer look at the conditions that the factory egg farms are operated in and you’ll find the problem you’re looking for.

Sen. John McCain said something even more revealing on Sunday? “Right now there’s kind of a generational change,” he said of Edward Snowden’s hero status among the Millennials. “Young Americans do not trust this government. Without trusting government, you can’t do a lot of things.”
Do you sense they are running scared?
As a Canadian we have our own issues due to Health Canada ( FDA) being so massively corrupt that most Canadians do not trust their government. We are in the midst of another Corruption Scandal at this time and we have had no shortages of them in past 40 years. Research done by Mcgill and Queens University had this to say.
“A quote from McGill and Queens University Research.
Canadians assume that their politicians and institutions are relatively free of the corruption they associate with other nations. The editors of this volume argue that this questionable supposition is based on scant evidence and very little serious analysis. ”
On the corruption scale Canada is rated about 10 and USA about 30. In my opinion neither warrants this rating kindness. The CACL Canadian Anti Corruption League is making large moves in correcting this lack of INTEGRITY and when in a position of influence will bring in the most comprehensive whistleblower protection legislation in the world. for the following reason.
Corruption can’t stand the light – corrupted peoples only fear is exposure.
Godless ideology breeds corruption like dampness breeds mold and neglect breeds decay
Meet us at http://www.canadiananticorruptionleague.org and start your own Anti Corruption Organization then become a political party and clean up this corrupt cess pool.
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed, citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”

I can’t imagine the (FDA) Fraud and Death Administration making another attack on healthy food. But then again, we no longer live in a country with a lot of common sense or intelligence in government organizations. I think maybe, it’s their idea of population control….keep the public sick by forcing on us unproven and unhealthy foods, and some of us will eventually get sick enough to die from eating it.

STOP THE NONSENSE! We need our small farmers and the freedom of free range for chickens which needs to be the norm, rather than the agribusiness rotten treatment of caged and medicated creatures that can’t enjoy the lives they’re intended to live. Deal with the facts and the greatest good, it would be animal cruelty to use explosive noises around the chickens, and a travesty for the neighbors. DO THE RIGHT THING.

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A new bill to let food producers decide whether to label GMOs could prevent states from passing mandatory labeling laws. It’s expected to be introduced in the next few weeks—so we need to dissuade potential co-sponsors now! Action Alert!

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